Thomson

It’s a heck of a way to run a pre-election campaign. On the eve of an expected election, politicians usually spend their time playing up good news, downplaying the bad, shaking hands and kissing babies.

Klein's fiscal legacy felt across the country

Alberta Premier Ralph Klein, giving his speech during a special tribute to him at the annual Global Business Forum, held at Banff Springs Hotel, Sept. 21, 2006

Photograph by: Calgary Herald file photo
, Calgary Herald

Ralph Klein’s bold revolution changed the course of Alberta politics and had a major impact across the country, shifting the political landscape firmly to the right and opening the door for the election of the Harper government.

Klein will be best remembered for paying off the debt, but perhaps his most enduring legacy is establishing a low-tax, small-government culture that resonates clearly today in Alberta politics, as the Redford government’s tough budget shows, say political scientists.

While there’s disagreement about Klein’s policies, there’s little question about his remarkable political skill and courage in pushing ahead a radical agenda that provoked a storm of controversy and polarized the province.

His first election victory as premier in 1993 touched off the Klein revolution, and “nobody would have guessed a government could be that bold,” says Steve Patten, a political scientist at the University of Alberta.

“And very few politicians could get away with that.”

The premier got away with it by the force of his unique personality, a trusted, personable man who wanted to be called simply “Ralph,” a former TV reporter and mayor who became “the centre stage of Alberta politics and the party,” says Patten.

Klein stared down his critics or gave them the finger as he slashed spending, cut civil service jobs and wages, did away with grants, cut health funding, deregulated electricity and remade the hospital system.

“Two years after Klein, Mike Harris won the Ontario election,” Patten says. “Two years after that, the Chretien government with Paul Martin as finance minister pulled to the right, too.”

While Preston Manning sat on the opposition benches in Ottawa, it was Klein who actually put the neo-conservative agenda into action, says Patten.

Klein also knew when to back off without being accused of flip-flopping.

Marv Moore, a cabinet veteran of the Peter Lougheed and Don Getty eras, saw in the young Calgary mayor a rare politician who could bring about major change. And that’s what Moore was looking for in the late 1980s as he watched the province’s debt pile up.

Klein’s populism was one factor but so was his considerable skill in bringing together people on Calgary city council, said Moore, who was municipal affairs minister at the time.

“Ralph was always conciliatory. There was not a lot of public fighting on that council. And later as premier, he was not afraid to apologize.”

And Klein got things done.

Former New Democrat leader Raj Pannu also admired Klein’s political skills and his “special talent” for speaking to Albertans — though the two leaders disagreed profoundly. Klein managed to carry out his agenda, and “that’s a tribute to the immense power he had in the province,” says Pannu.

Unfortunately, Klein’s legacy — a culture of low taxes and high expectations for services — has hamstrung any effort by successive governments to put the province’s revenues on a stable footing, he says. In fact, under Klein the province became more dependant on oil and gas, not less.

Instead of saving some oil and gas revenue, he gave away $400 cheques dubbed “Ralph bucks.” He pulled money out of the Heritage Fund for years and gave the province the flat tax that reduced income tax revenues by millions, says Pannu.

“He had the people behind him, he could have dealt with (the revenue issues) but that was an ideological barrier he could not get over,” says Pannu.

Peter Elzinga, who ran Klein’s leadership campaign and later ran the premier’s office, says Klein was a “political genius” who was often underestimated.

His greatest contribution is paying down the debt and putting the province’s finances on a strong track, says Elzinga.

“Ralph really had charisma, and he really got things done. People in other provinces would say, ‘We wish we had a premier like yours.’ ”

David Taras at Mount Royal University in Calgary says Klein, like former premier Peter Lougheed, became an iconic figure in Alberta — “genuinely, a man of the people” — and as such was able to dominate the political landscape for years.

While he had many successes on the policy side, there were also some “immense failures,” says Taras.

“He had political courage, but the more he was in power, the less effective he became.”

Klein’s particular “blind spot” was planning for the future. While he paid off the debt and deficit, he stopped building roads and schools and created an infrastructure deficit the province is still dealing with, Taras says.

Rather than start a savings plan, he handed out $400 cheques when energy royalties hit record levels, thereby losing an opportunity to put the province’s revenues on a more stable footing.

“He also cut back on human services like health and education that are the key to future prosperity,” Taras says.

That Klein still looms large in the political psyche is partly a function of the fact that he was followed by a weak leader, Ed Stelmach, then by Redford, who has yet to put a strong stamp on the party, says Patten.

“He’s still the reference point for Alberta politics today.”

Heather Forsythe, first elected as a PC MLA in 1993 under Klein’s leadership, now a member of the Wildrose caucus, described Klein as a friend and mentor whose door was always open, who was willing to listen to ideas.

“People didn’t get to know Ralph, like some people around the cabinet table,” she says. “I don’t think they appreciated the huge heart he had and how much he loved Albertans and the aboriginal people in this province. He was just an unbelievable man and it’s going to be a huge loss. A huge loss.”

Forsythe, who served as both solicitor general and minister of children’s services under Klein, says at caucus and cabinet meetings the premier always urged those around the table to think differently.

“What I always liked about it was, he always used to say, ‘Think outside of the box people. Think outside of the box,’ ” she says, speaking in the Alberta legislature, a few steps from Klein’s official portrait.

“He always said, ‘Is this the best thing for Albertans?’ And that’s how he led his cabinet. He never was secretive about anything.”

Forsythe recalls Klein’s support as she worked to introduce the Protection of Children Involved in Prostitution Act. The bill started out as a private member’s bill she brought forward in 1999.

“I got a call from him on a Saturday night and I thought I was in trouble,” Forsythe recalls. “He said, ‘I want to make it Bill 1.’

“I was so struck by that and said, ‘Boss, I don’t understand.’ He said, ‘It’s a damn good piece of legislation. We’re making it Bill 1. You get into Edmonton tomorrow and we’ll make it happen.”

The act, now renamed the Protection of Sexually Exploited Children Act, introduced programs and services to help children end their involvement in prostitution.

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